At last year’s spring nationals in Dallas the Swiss Teams event threw up this technical problem, on what looks like everybody’s four spade contract. Incidentally, the auction featured a Texas Transfer. Yes, everything is bigger in Texas, but on this occasion North was playing a style where a transfer and raise to game would have been a mild slam-try.

The defenders lead a top club and shift to the heart jack — a normal if unchallenging defense. You win the queen, then play the spade ace and a second spade. West follows with the 10 then discards a club. How should you take it from there?

It looks natural to try to find West with the diamond queen, but this is not very much better than a 50% chance. If you misguess diamonds, (imagine the same layout as in the diagram but with the diamond queen and five switched) the defenders will clear hearts, and then East may be able to ruff the third diamond, to prevent you from getting the discard you need of dummy’s heart loser.

The solution is simple: cash the third top trump, to prevent accidents, then take the diamond king and lead towards the diamond ace. If East ruffs in, you have no diamond loser. If East follows suit, you win the diamond ace and play a third diamond. The defenders cannot stop you from winning the heart ace and pitching the heart on the remaining high diamond. Even though they can ruff in, the loser has gone away.

In today’s slam South saw at once that he was very well placed to make 12 tricks. All he needed was four spade tricks, so he intended to cash the spade queen and finesse the 10 as a safety play on the second round of the suit, protecting himself against a five-one spade break with West having the length.

Accordingly he won the opening lead in hand and took the spade queen and led a second spade toward dummy. When West discarded, it was time for a new plan.

South took the spade king, then played off the king and queen of clubs, followed by the king and queen of diamonds. East followed suit both times in each suit, so now South had to commit himself.

Since his combined holding in hearts was longer than in either minor, and West’s opening lead had suggested length there, South mentally crossed his fingers and took his remaining high heart, which had the effect of squeezing East into letting go something he did not want to part with. Not surprisingly he chose a small diamond, which seemed safe enough. But South now took the diamond ace, forcing East to pitch a club. That allowed South to play off dummy’s remaining club honor, reducing dummy and East down to just three spades each. At this point declarer led a low spade from the board, forcing East to win and lead into dummy’s spade tenace at trick 12.

When you reach the wrong strain, and at the wrong level, there is a special incentive to play it well, or partner will be more than usually unhappy.

It was remarkably unlucky that six diamonds was not a claim – but there again, in a perfect world North-South would have played in seven hearts.

At the table South won the opening lead, discarding a spade on the club ace, and led to the diamond jack to get the bad news. Undaunted, he ran the spade queen, East ducking his king, and then played three more rounds of trumps, leaving West with the high trump.

Now declarer went after hearts, but it was easy for West to delay ruffing in until the fourth round of the suit (if he mistimes his ruff, declarer will get his spade away, either sooner or later). Then he exited with a club, and South had a spade loser at the end.

To make the slam legitimately, South must ruff the opening lead in hand and cross to the diamond jack. Then he runs the spade queen and draws three more rounds of trumps, discarding a club from the table. Next he cashes the spade ace, discarding dummy’s last small club, and starts on the hearts. Whenever West ruffs, he must return a club and dummy will be high. Declarer knows West has no more than two spades, since he has five trump and at least six clubs. So he will not have a spade left to lead when he ruffs in.

The Dyspeptics Club membership changes as time passes, but one thing that never alters is South’s capacity to pick up strong hands. Indeed when a member had been away for six months he said that he didn’t feel properly home until he walked through the door and heard South pick up his cards and heard him open two no-trumps.

In today’s deal South barreled his way to the best game, when North found a temporizing call at his second turn and thereby uncovered the spade fit. Against four spades the diamond jack was led to the ace. Declarer cashed the two top trumps, and when he found the bad news started running the clubs, discarding hearts from dummy. East carefully pitched a diamond on the third club, but ruffed the fourth and drew another round of trumps, and declarer had just nine tricks.

As North pointed out, East had indeed defended well by delaying ruffing in, but South should not have given the defenders the chance to make a nice play.

A far better approach would have been to take just one top spade, then to lead a heart to the queen. East can win and play a second diamond. But declarer ruffs, cashes the spade king then plays a club to the queen, ruffs another diamond and now runs the clubs.

Dummy can discard its last diamond on the third club, and regardless of when East ruffs in, declarer will take 10 tricks.

Knowing your opponents’ leading methods is often critical to finding the best line as declarer.

In today’s deal West leads the diamond seven against three no-trump, and as South you duck East’s diamond king and capture his six with your ace as West plays the eight. You have to find the best route to nine tricks.

Since your opponents play fourth-highest leads, the combination of West’s lead of the seven, plus East’s leading back the six, strongly suggests that West has five or more diamonds and has deviously concealed his small diamond. So if you knock out the spade ace the defenders will be in position to cash out the diamonds for down one. In other words, playing spades seems like a bad idea.

A different approach would be to find the club queen with West, as well as East holding both the heart king and jack. Not a good chance — in that you need three cards well placed for you, but it is not an entirely hopeless prospect. Yes you might expect the club queen to be to your right, but you do not have enough entries to dummy to take all the finesses you want against East.

So you play a club to the jack, and when it holds, next comes the crucial play of a heart to the 10. A second club finesse brings good news in that suit. Then, after a heart to the queen, all that remains is to claim nine tricks.

One of the plays that separates the expert from the intermediate player, is that while both of them take finesses when they must, somehow the expert’s finesses ether work more often – or good things happen when the finesse loses. Let’s see a deal that reflects that theme.

Consider the play in six spades in today’s deal, where East-West have competed in diamonds and West leads the diamond king. How would you set about catering for unfortunate lies of the cards?

After ruffing the first trick, declarer must draw trump in two rounds to avoid nasty accidents. At this point the stage is set for an elimination play, which requires two entries to dummy to ruff away the remaining diamonds from the North hand, to remove the defenders’ safe exit cards.

South starts with the club ace then queen. This brings the good news that the suit divides 3-2, and now declarer leads the club jack to dummy’s queen and ruffs a diamond. Dummy is reentered with the club nine and the diamond suit is finally eliminated with another ruff. Declarer now passes the heart 10 to East, who finds himself endplayed into leading a heart back into dummy’s tenace or conceding a ruff-and-discard. Either choice gives declarer 12 tricks.

Obviously, a heart at trick one breaks up this endplay. But note that if you do not make the effort to strip off the diamonds, East wins the first heart cheaply, exits in diamonds, and sits back to wait for his second heart winner.

One of the recurring themes in my articles is that the opposition bidding frequently leads declarer to the winning line. This was true today, but only in theory, not practice.

Against three no-trumps West led a low spade to the 10 and queen, and now with six top tricks, declarer hoped that a 3-3 heart break, might provide the other tricks he needed. If not, the clubs were favorite to come in for no loser.

A heart to the jack lost to the ace and back came a spade, removing declarer’s last stopper in that suit. When hearts proved to be 4-2, South entered dummy with the diamond ace and ran the club 10. It lost, and the spade return saw the speedy demise of the game.

In view of East’s opening bid, South was unlucky to find the club queen offside. But, unless East’s opening bid was an out and out psyche, declarer could have guaranteed his contract by entering dummy with the diamond ace at trick two, and leading the heart four. If East rises with the ace, declarer has three heart tricks, to bring the trick count up to the requisite nine.

And if East plays low, the queen will win, whereupon declarer can go after clubs. Four tricks are always available in this suit by playing low to the 10. (At pairs one might cash the ace and king, playing for an overtrick if the queen were singleton or doubleton, but this line does not cater for most 5-1 breaks.)

Against four hearts, in an expert game, West led the club queen, and South saw that if diamonds were three-three and hearts three-two, the route to a 10th trick would be straightforward enough. After playing ace, king and another diamond, he could duck a spade return and win the next spade. He would continue by cashing the ace and king of trumps then discarding dummy's last spade on the good diamond. Whether the defender with the good trump ruffed or not, South's last spade would be ruffed in dummy.

But declarer saw there was an additional chance when East had four diamonds too. If he could force an opponent to lead a trump, he might play the suit without the loss of a trick. For that to work, he had to remove the defenders’ exit cards. So, he ruffed a club at trick two, then played ace, king and a third diamond to East’s 10, while West discarded a spade. East returned the spade queen, and South ducked. After taking the spade 10 continuation with the ace, South led a fourth diamond, on which West correctly discarded a second spade.

Declarer ruffed the diamond in dummy, ruffed another club and exited with a spade. East won and did his best when he returned the heart queen but declarer took the trick with the ace and returned a heart to his king.

This was smart play by South, who reasoned that, with two small hearts, West might have ruffed in on the third spade to lead a heart.